Summertime… and a chef’s thoughts will turn seasonal. In increasing numbers.

If the words “seasonally focused” and “locally sourced” bring to mind high-end restaurants in places like New York and California, think again. Menus driven by seasonal, local ingredients are becoming increasingly commonplace, in response to the pendulum swing against large-scale “factory” farming, cardboard-tasting tomatoes, and products being trucked at all carbon costs from the far corners of the world. And when you buy locally, it follows that you menu seasonally.

The locavore movement may well accelerate, as more college/university and even K-12 school foodservice departments get in on the trend, helping to create a new generation of consumer that demands a more back-to-basics approach to where food comes from and when it’s served.

And while upper-end restaurants and trendy hotels can afford to employ foragers and other specialists to source products like wild mushrooms and obscure heirloom lettuces, the trend is actually more accessible than many people may realize.

A new study from Michigan State University, in fact, revealed that school districts that buy produce grown by local farmers were able to lower costs in addition to offering items like asparagus and Asian pears that aren’t normally served in school cafeterias. The landmark study of seven school districts in the upper Midwest and Northeast participating in so-called farm-to-school programs found that school foodservice directors were paying less for fruits and vegetables because the supply chain is shorter.

In addition, the programs built appreciation of the relationship between food and farm through field trips, signage in the cafeterias, and farmer visits to the schools. Such farm-to-school programs are actually quite common: There are nearly 2,000 in the United States, according to the National Farm-to-School Network, but this is the first time an outside organization has provided a context for what many school foodservice directors have long supported: that “local” and “seasonal” can also be “economical.”

Bon Appetit Management Co., an onsite foodservice management company providing cafes and catering services at more than 400 locations in the US, was early to the party when it initiated a Farm to Fork program in 1999. In the ensuing years, the company has differentiated itself around the mission of “food services for a sustainable future” with initiatives addressing everything from sustainable seafood sourcing and Eat Local Challenges to waste-reduction goals and student gardens. In the process, the company spends some $55 million a year on products from within a 150-mile radius of any given BAMCO location. In the process, many of Bon Appetit’s competitors have also joined the sustainability charge.

Self-ops are there too. University of Massachusetts at Amherst has committed to buying 23% of its produce from local farmers and 10% of its food from New England sources, and collects close to 500 tons of wet waste to be turned into compost going back to the farms. The foodservice department serves organic food where possible, fair-trade and shade grown coffee where feasible, and sustainable seafood in accordance with Seafood WATCH guidelines. The school even hosts an on-campus farmers market in September, October and November.

Easy for an organization that doesn’t have to compete on the open marketplace? Chains like Chipotle Mexican Grill and Burgerville, in the Pacific Northwest, serve as models for how sizable chains can source more responsibly. Now a nascent little fast-casual chain called Sweetgreen, which just opened its fourth location in the Washington, DC area, is putting many of those concepts to work on its “food that fits” menu. The nascent chain recently hired a sustainability and sourcing manager—only half-jokingly referred to as the staff “sourceress” to visit local farmers markets and work with growers to supply food for the restaurant.

The salad-and-yogurt menu, meanwhile, is resolutely committed to such seasonal finds as tomatoes and corn in summer, and sweet potatoes and apples as the weather turns cooler. Eating your veggies never tasted so good.

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